We began the fall with a full house at the "Athens of America" roundtable at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Please join us also for the following events:

This Saturday, October 1, we are a co-sponsor for the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides' second annual "Great Twelve-Hour Tour" of Philadelphia. It's a River to River, Pine to Vine, Rain or Shine event, and it's free - join any segment or spend the day. For more information, go to: http://www.phillyguides.org/great-tour-2011.aspx .

Registration is open now for the next two programs of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable discussion series:

"Workshop of the World" on Wednesday, October 19, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Tacony branch of the Free Library.

Teachers, an additional educators' workshop will be offered on the theme of "Workshop of the World" on Tuesday, November 9, 3:30-6:30 p.m. at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. To sign up for this free workshop, go to: http://www.hsp.org/node/2311

We are so pleased by your interest and participation in creating The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Thank you!

In the decades after American independence, the atmosphere of liberty in Philadelphia spawned an artistic spirit that earned this city its reputation as the Athens of America. Here, enthusiasm for the arts grew with the same fervor and in the same houses, streets, and shops where the seeds of political freedom had been sown and cultivated a generation earlier. Philadelphia began to grow into a vibrant, varied, and long-lasting center for arts and culture.

To many, there were clear parallels between Athens in the Great Age of Pericles (480 BC-404 BC) and Philadelphia in the early national period (1790-1840). Athens’ architectural monuments, sculpture, wall painting, pottery, furniture, literature, music, and theatre established the fundamental elements of these arts for more than two thousand years. Philadelphia was poised to take the lead artistically for America in the same way Athens inspired the ancient world.